Dear Terrence & listers,
I am a proactive advocate for appropriate and accountable spending from the public purse, but I still harbour a well founded fear that a solid rigorous education is being high jacked by a prevailing political thirst for ‘immediate’ research impact at the cost of all else. The quality of a student’s education is surely what should be first and foremost in our minds as doctoral educators? We run a clear and present risk of loosing sight of the value of gestation, of thinking things through, of carefully considering implications through the privileging or time and space to our students, especially in light of some of the interesting quantifications of time taken to complete journal papers that have been bantered around the list over the last 24hrs.
There has been much discussion and debate in Architecture about the call for a ‘slow’ architecture in which temporality and experience is once more privileged over the prevailing semiotic saturation affected by contemporary culture. Perhaps this is a romantic and naïve position, but I would like to herald a similar call for the ‘slow doctorate’ through which the doctoral student is privileged with time and focus through which to generate new knowledge that doesn’t just react and respond to immediate concerns, but that engages with the temporality of epochs.
On 3/04/08 12:06 PM, "Terence Love" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Chris,
>
> One of the key drivers of change in doctoral education is public ethics.
>
> The public is the main payer of research training, and the public can
> rightfully expect useful public returns from this funding.
>
> This requires that knowledge is returned to the public domain quickly to
> maximise its usefulness to society.
>
> Sensibly, this requires short doctorates, publishing during the doctorate,
> and doctorates by publication.
>
> In contrast to what you are suggesting, it's a great change to now find the
> real horse actually pulling the cart.
>
> In earlier days, it was the other way round when a doctorate was part of
> the privileged life of the elite, funded from the public purse for the
> benefit of the individual concerned.
>
> Terry
Regards,
: : c h r i s b r i s b I n : :
B. Des. Studies, B. Architecture [ hon I ]
Lecturer in Design [ Architecture ]
Doctoral Candidate of the ATCH Research Group UQ
[ architecture/theory/criticism/history ]
http://www.architect.uq.edu.au/atch/
Research Member of the AMDM Research Group QUT
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